Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Diana didn’t know what to expect when she walked into the library at ten after six on Tuesday night. She hadn’t seen Alex since yesterday, hadn’t talked to him. They’d texted briefly, but that was because she’d broken down and sent him a message to ask if he’d heard anything from Viktor’s people.
He’d taken his sweet time answering, and then he’d told her no. She’d asked if he was lying to keep her in the dark. He’d said no. She couldn’t think of anything to ask after that, so she’d put the phone down, screamed a little in frustration, and gone back to unpacking boxes.
Where she kept thinking about every moment of their night together, her stomach swooping and soaring, her heart racing, her pussy aching with need as memory after memory crashed against the shores of her mind. The box unpacking hadn’t distracted her enough.
She’d thought he might knock on her door or call and tell her to come to his place, but she’d gone to bed frustrated. She’d taken care of herself, shattering with a moan as her fingers worked her clit, but it wasn’t the same.
It wasn’t nearly the same.
How had she accepted such unsatisfactory experiences before him?
She’d had another text this afternoon, but it’d come from Daphne, telling her that Alex had given her Diana’s number and reminding her that book club was at six. Diana had responded that she’d be there, but only because Alex had impressed upon her the necessity of it.
So here she was, walking into the Sutton’s Creek library in a pair of jeans with ankle boots and a thin cashmere sweater.
A wiry older man, wearing a pink T-shirt that said Sometimes Fancy, Always Schmancy in a circle around a unicorn, stopped to stare at her.
He had a stack of books under his arm, and she thought he might be wearing a touch of eyeliner.
“Are you here for the Bookalicious Besties?” he asked.
“Um, yes?” She knew the book club was called Bookalicious Besties, because Daphne had told her so, but now that she was here, she didn’t feel like she belonged. Maybe she should just turn around and go…
“Great! Miss Paisley said you’d be here. I’ll show you where it is. I’m Hiram Watson.”
“Diana Corbin.”
“Well, Diana, I run the murder mystery book club on Thursdays, and we use the same room. Follow me and I’ll show you. We’re the How I Met Your Murderer club if you like mysteries,” he tossed over his shoulder.
She chuckled. “I do like mysteries.”
“Then you should come join us sometime. Here we are.” He stopped and knocked on a door, then pushed it open. “I’ve brought your new member, ladies. Y’all have fun.”
Diana thanked him. Six women waited inside the room, paper plates piled with nibbles on the table in front of them and notebooks off to the side.
Daphne jumped up. “Diana, you made it! Come on in. Grab a plate, get some food. We can’t have wine, but we have soda and waters if you’d like something. I think you know everyone here…”
Diana pasted on a smile as a bought of nerves hit. “Yes, hello. Thank you for inviting me.”
She didn’t sense any hostility as the women welcomed her. It wasn’t until she got a few crackers and some cheese and took her seat that the room when quiet. They were all watching her. Took everything she had not to squirm in her seat.
“Soooo,” Aurora Harper said. “You and Alex, huh?”
These women did not waste time. She’d expected polite chitchat, book talk, and then an attempt to find out about her and Alex once she’d lowered her guard. Rory went straight for the jugular.
“We’ve been dancing around each other for months. I think it was inevitable.”
“I would have sworn you didn’t like each other,” Daphne said, looking gleeful. “Then bam, there you were yesterday morning with wet hair and that satisfied look in your eyes.”
Had she looked satisfied?
“Daph,” Callie said, cutting her eyes at seventeen-year-old Nikki. Who rolled her eyes and bumped shoulders with her sister.
“I know the drill, Cal. Like you and Seth aren’t making the beast with two backs on the regular.”
“The what?” Callie asked, whipping her head to Nikki.
Nikki giggled. “It’s Shakespeare. Othello.”
Callie put her forehead in her hands. “Oh my God. I’ve done a terrible job. First the, er, blue alien book and now this.”
Nikki slung an arm over Callie’s shoulders. “Relax, Cal. You didn’t think I thought you were playing board games in your bedroom, did you?”
“No,” Callie mumbled. “But the visual you just gave me.”
Diana couldn’t help but grin along with everyone else.
She already knew the Crowell sisters’ history.
Their parents had died, and Callie left her job in Poland to return and take care of Nikki who was still a teenager and going to high school.
They’d ended up in Sutton’s Creek because their parents had been nearly bankrupt, and everything had to be sold.
When Griffin Research Labs had offered Callie, a brilliant programmer, a job, she’d leapt on it and made the move.
Nikki rode horses competitively and they’d needed somewhere to keep her old horse that she no longer showed, so Callie had rented a small farm near Sutton’s Creek. After someone locked her in the lab and nearly killed her, she’d gone to One Shot Tactical for help.
And met Seth, who’d ended up falling in love with her.
Now they lived together on the farm with Nikki, a cat, her old horse, and a cream puff of a Belgian Malinois named Luna who was fiercely protective of her people, but also a lap dog who didn’t quite understand she was supposed to be a scary military dog.
“Aaaand back to Diana,” Daphne said when everyone was done laughing and Nikki was patting Callie’s shoulder and saying, “There, there. It’ll be all right, sissy.”
Diana took a bite of cheese and found her calm. It was easier to do now that the tension had been broken by Nikki and Callie.
“There’s nothing more to say, is there? We didn’t like each other for a long time. Now we do. Guess we’ll see how long that lasts.”
Rory patted her belly. “Guess that’s true. You never know what’ll happen. I didn’t like Chance, and he didn’t like me, but then we did like each other just long enough to do this.” She sighed. “I still thought I didn’t like him, but I knew I liked being with him, if you get what I’m saying.”
She did. She really did.
“Anyway, Chance was smart enough for both of us when the hormones were driving me crazy, and I didn’t know what I wanted. He insisted on being part of our baby’s life and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Then he wore me down with his patience and love—and here we are.”
Emma reached over and squeezed her friend’s hand.
They’d been besties since they were toddlers, and it was clear they loved each other a lot.
Emma was also sporting a baby bump, which Diana imagined meant the two of them were having a blast preparing for their children together.
Their kids would also be best friends, and the cycle would continue.
Diana didn’t know what that was like. She’d been isolated from other children growing up, other than her siblings, and she’d never formed those kinds of attachments.
Connection was hard for her, and she thought it probably always would be.
Whenever she tried it, it didn’t stick. Since she was the common denominator, it had to be some flaw in her.
“I appreciate what you ladies are doing, and that you’ve included me,” she said, her throat a little tight. “I don’t know what the future holds, and it may be that you’ve invited me here for nothing, but, uh, if Alex and I stop seeing each other, I won’t hang around and make this awkward.”
The women exchanged a look. Daphne was the one who spoke because she was apparently the nominated spokesperson for the group.
“We don’t know what the future holds either, but you’re always welcome. I mean it helps if you like reading romance novels, since that’s what we do, but if you and Alex break up, you don’t have to break up with us.”
Daphne reached over and put a hand on her arm. The touch was shocking and comforting at the same time.
“You did a huge, huge thing for me, Diana. You didn’t have to do it, either. Trust me when I tell you that I will always be grateful for it. If Alex isn’t smart enough to hold onto you, that’s his problem. I will never let you go because I like you and think you’re awesome.”
The lump in her throat was huge. Tears stung, but she didn’t let them fall. She also had to be honest.
“Thank you. I wanted to help you stay here with your man, and I’m glad it worked. But it might not have. It wasn’t all me. I had help.”
“Still, if you hadn’t asked for it, it wouldn’t have happened. I’m free from that part of my life because you did.” Her smile grew. “And my father and brother are locked away for good, so that makes me doubly happy. You rock in my book.”
“Okay, ladies,” Paisley said, “I think we should get on to discussing the book, if we understand each other now.”
“I think we do,” Daphne said. “Diana?”
Emotion knotted her stomach. “Yes, I think so. Thank you all for including me. I almost didn’t come, because I thought I didn’t belong, but Alex encouraged me.”
She didn’t need to tell them why. Just that he had.
“He’s a good guy,” Daphne said. “Even if he’s a bit of a hard ass.” She guffawed. “Oh my God when he saw the skeleton and the spiders today. I thought he was going to kill me!”
“You really like to push his buttons.” Emma shook her head.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t a tiny bit of payback.”
Diana didn’t know what she was paying him back for, but she thought it was probably a good idea not to piss off Daphne Bryant, former mafia princess.
Everyone else nodded sagely, clearly understanding. She wasn’t going to ask, but Daphne turned to her and explained that Alex and Kane had an agreement about Kane not asking her out—because Alex had been afraid Kane would break her heart and she’d quit her job.
“So, he deserves it,” she finished, snickering. “Trying to interfere in my life like that. Making agreements about me without my knowledge. He’s lucky all I do is irritate him with my little surprises. He puts up with it because he still feels guilty, heh.”
Diana had to admit it was funny. “What about Kane? He agreed to it, too.”
“Oh, I don’t let him forget it,” Daphne said. “But I love him so I’m nicer about it. Okay, onto the book. I got us sidetracked again. Sorry, Payz.”
“It’s fine,” Paisley said, waving a hand.
“This book club isn’t strict. The main reason we’re here is discussion.
Oh, and making our reading journals.” She placed a hand on the notebook beside her.
“We’ll tell you all about that after we discuss the book, Diana.
And now I officially yield the floor to Nikki since she picked this one. ”
Nikki was practically bouncing in her seat. “Oh my God, you guys, this book! Did everyone read it?” She held up her e-reader to feature a cover with a shockingly blue man on it. With horns.
Callie pushed a paperback toward Diana. “You can borrow mine if you want to read it,” she whispered.
“Er, thanks,” Diana whispered back, taking the book, because it would be rude not to, and studying the blue man and his big horns.
When she’d decided she wanted to try steamy romances again, this wasn’t quite what she’d had in mind.
But the cover was intriguing. Maybe diving into the deep end made more sense than trying to find a steamy novel about ordinary people.
“It was, er, hot,” Rory said delicately. “Surprisingly so.”
“Tell me about it,” Callie muttered. “I still can’t believe….”
“Get over it, sissy. All the girls are reading this at school.”
“Do their mothers know?”
“Some probably do. Look,” Nikki said seriously, waving her hands around.
“It’s not about the sexy bits—though they’re very sexy—it’s about how he cares for her.
How he respects her and helps her navigate this new culture.
He protects her from harm, but he also lets her make her own choices.
He’s the kind of guy any hetero woman wants—sexy, caring, protective.
He’s proof you don’t have to put up with a guy who puts you down or just wants to get in your pants—or doesn’t care about your needs as well as his own.
If the dude doesn’t respect you, then he’s not worth your time. ”
Callie’s mouth dropped open. Shut. “Wow.”
“Exactly. You were so focused on the sex and the fact I read it that you missed the bigger picture. Romance novels can teach you things, Callie. Good things. You got lucky with Seth, but not every women gets so lucky to find a guy like that. Girls need to know not to settle.”
“Well, damn,” Rory said, folding her arms. “I just thought it was a smut fest. Turns out it’s a life lesson.”
Diana turned the book over in her hands.
She could have used that lesson about not settling years ago.
Maybe she wouldn’t have spent so much time thinking mediocre sex was not only normal, but acceptable.
And it wasn’t just the sex. She’d never asked a man for emotional support, never expected it, but according to Nikki, the man in this book was all about supporting his woman and giving her fantastic orgasms. Who knew a woman could have both those things simultaneously?
“I may not know a lot about relationships yet,” Nikki said, “But I know every single one of you has the kind of guy who would do anything for you. We all deserve that, and we should want to do anything for them in return. It’s supposed to be mutual, not one person trying to keep the other happy.
That’s what I’m learning from these books. ”
When the book club was over and the ladies were preparing to go the Salty Dawg to meet the men, Diana slipped the two-dicked blue alien book in her bag.
Apparently, she had some reading to do.